I was listening to NPR this week and heard a story about Suboxone and was going to post the link here but I stumbled across something else on NPR.org/health section that caught my eye. This is a quote from the article.

From small towns to big cities, prescription painkiller abuse is a growing problem. The number of drug poisoning deaths in the U.S. tripled between 1999 and 2008. Drugmakers tried to curb the burgeoning addiction, such as coming up with a new recipe for the popular and widely abused OxyContin in 2010 that makes it harder to crush and snort.

But the move prompted some users to search for other prescription painkillers, and many have found their replacement in a drug called Opana.

“I’ve seen the mother and the father go to the doctor. It’s a big day; it’s like a festival,” says Stevens. “Everybody’s over at the house, waiting on them to get back from the doctor and the pharmacy. They come in with their four or five different narcotics. Nothing wrong with them at all physically, and those narcotics are gone within 30 minutes.”

The problem is that Opana, which was approved by the FDA in 2006 for chronic pain prescriptions, is so potent. In Scott County, Ind., 31 people have died since last year because of Opana overdoses.

Opana’s maker, Endo Pharmaceuticals, has tried to halt the trend by following in the steps of OxyContin’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, and releasing a reformulated, harder-to-abuse pill earlier this year. It’s difficult now to find one of the original pills in Scott County pharmacies.

The reason it caught my eye as well as the article on Suboxone was the manufacturer. I had no idea that Beckitt Pharmaceuticals developed suboxone with money from the Federal Government. I have been long opposed to Suboxone for the simple fact is has been marketed as a ‘Miracle’ solution to prescription pill abuse and is simply nothing more than an updated version of the failed methadone program of the 1970’s. People in desperation are sold misinformation about the treatment and success rate of Suboxone as it is a temporary solution to a long term problem.

My wife and I received some text messages from our daughter last night who continues to move around with the traveling circus that is her Uncle’s life. I am frustrated to the point of anger that she is staying with him and his loser girlfriend. I wanted so much more for her but she is blinded by immaturity and youth as he can do no wrong. That living the way they do is cool and as long as she is comfortable with it nothing will change.

Expectation is the doormat for resentment. Most of the difficulties I struggle with today are based in expectations and intolerence. All I can do is try to be realistic about people, about situations and realize that I am not in charge of what other people do or say. I can only try and maintain a balance in my life of realistic perception of reality and myself.

I still have yet to ask someone to sponsor me in this area, with over 6 1/2 years of being clean I am still being stubborn! I have my eye one one fellow whom makes a lot of sense when he speaks. His name is Ken and I feel he may be a good fit for me. It’s just getting up the damn courage to do it. I know in the long run I need it and plan on asking him the next time I see him, hopefuly on Tuesday.

‘Secrets aren’t free Peter, they all have a cost’.
Aunt May from The Amazing Spider-Man

I turned 44 on Saturday and had a wonderful day with friends and family. Part of the freedom I experience today is the ability to be myself, the ability to be with the people I want to be with and be myself.
Addicts tend to live secret lives. They wear masks for different occasions, for different people. I don’t have to do that today, I am free to be myself.

I spoke to my mother and father on the phone. My mom cried. She told me she misses me since we moved, and I miss her. I haven’t seen her in 2 years. This is the longest I have not been able to see her since birth. It pains me to hear her cry. I need to make every effort to get back to Ohio to see her. The problem is the same as it is for most…Time and Money. I need to quit talking about plans to visit and just make the plans.

My daughter called on Friday telling us that her Uncle is being evicted from where he is staying. She moved in with him and like 7 other people, whom none hold down a job, and are involved in bullshit. When I found out about this originally I told her that this situation was not going to last, her staying with them that is. I asked her to find another way and she has chosen not to. She called asking for money. She said they were leaving there and going to Zanesville. I told her that I thought this was a bad idea, that her Uncle had her a job lined up at a car dealership and would help her to get a vehicle and she turned her nose up at it because she is doing what she wants to do not what she needs to do. This whole situation has become frustrating to the point that letting go is putting claw marks on it. Between the revelation that she is gay, that everything we asked her to do she has done the opposite, and this idea that somehow her life is ‘better’ because she is making decisions based on the influence of her burned out Uncle and his trash girlfriend is mind blowing. I’ve ranted enough.

Letting go is difficult especially when we want to control a situation, a person. I can’t make the decisions for her. I told her on the phone that this situation was not the first time or the last time her Uncle and these other folks had been through this. That she was moving further away from herself and her goals. I got, ‘Ok Dad’ and ‘I hear you Dad’, which means she is not hearing me. Sometimes life HAS to be the teacher.

I continue to go to AA meetings and feel better about my perspective on things. I am currently in Atlanta on business and when I get back I am making a serious effort to ask 1 of 3 guys to sponsor me. I have been looking and listening and have it narrowed down.

Work has been a pain in the ass. We have been extremely busy and short handed.

My wife and son are good and I continue on the path before me.
I hope this post finds you well.

I am also reminded that a relapse, if we survive it, might bring the temporary relief we are looking for. There is no guarantee even in relapse. The temporary relief that it might bring. That seems to me to be a pretty big gamble.
I have known a few addicts who are in and out, in and out, in and out. I understand that this may be a part of someones story and for those who…

Returning to meetings has been awkward. The first one I went back to a few weeks ago felt like I was walking into the rooms for the 1st time. I received smiles and welcomes and at the passing out of chips there was a long pause when ‘Surrender’ chips were offered. Glances in my direction as this ‘new fellow’ has come into the AA fold. I sat with nerves, strange nerves, as if I felt the need to explain myself, and I would just not at this moment.

It never ceases to amaze me how when I need to hear something it has always been presented in some form or fashion. When I walked in I needed to hear something that let me know that all of the negatives I had been stacking up in my mind as to why I should return to meetings were nothing more than my diseased thinking leading me further away from the very ideals, the very principles that helped save my life.

I heard folks talking in a clear and concise manner about the steps, about sponsorship, about experience, about life. I didn’t hear about ‘Drug Court’, and resentments about WSC or how, ‘The fellowship isn’t the same when I first came in’. It never ceases to amaze me to this day how we are reminded that we recover in the here and now…Day to day, moment to moment, and yet we live and feed off of the resentments of the past. Resentments founded in our very own recovery, our own Fellowships.

After the readings were done we went around the room with introductions. The floor was then open for discussion…. I could not wait any longer……

My name is Bob and I’m an alcoholic. I was told when I first came into recovery that if I went to a meeting other than NA, I should respect the house I was in.
It’s been almost a year since I have been to a meeting. It’s not that I have drank or used anything, it’s more that I felt disconnected from recovery after moving here and I just simply told myself each day that I was doing ok. In truth, I felt like I was losing my mind these last few months….So much has transpired over the last 2 years…..

And so I told them what was going on. Who I was, where I had been, and more importantly where I was at today. People listened; nodding their heads and making me feel welcome. I described how my mind is able to convince me of almost anything. The justifications I had been using, the behaviors that were becoming more prevalent, and lastly the loneliness and isolation were killing me.

Some people commented and I found I wasn’t alone. I was told of a man from the area that sober/clean decided that it was a good idea to jump off the Vicksburg Bridge in Mississippi because he was unable to come to grips with the realities of life sober without meetings. This may sound like a stretch but I remember my NA sponsor’s-sponsor telling stories of people who were in recovery for many years that simply just stopped coming to meetings. That they didn’t use, but they just faded into the woodwork of denial and behavior that led them to the rooms to start with.

I truly believe that using whatever substance is merely a symptom of the disease of addiction. That the behaviors, the feelings, the perceptions of self and reality were there long before the 1st drug was ever picked up. The mind is truly an amazing, complex thing. Our abilities to reason and evaluate are somehow not in alignment with what reality it is. The obsession or, ‘That fixed idea that takes us back time and time again to our drug of choice, or some substitute to try and recapture that ease and comfort we once knew’. That ease and comfort is our pillow and blanket from reality and self.

After the meeting people came up to me and told me they were glad I was there and had decided to come back. That they needed to hear what I had said as much as me needing to say it. I am currently going to 2 meetings a week and feel much better about things. My next step is to find a new sponsor which I am dreading to be honest. I have so much respect and love for my old sponsor I am afraid I will allow the comparison game to get in the way.

Our house has been quite and we have heard from our daughter sporadically. I worry quietly and try not to alarm my wife. I miss our daughter but I don’t miss the chaos and drama that comes with her. Our lives move forward in spite of her decisions. We have come to find out she told several people here different versions of how and why she decided to leave, none of which are important because I know what the truth is. I tried calling her today and got no answer. I sure would like to hear her voice…..

Over the course of the past 2 weeks some things have come to my attention. The plans my daughter made in moving back to Ohio I don’t believe were any real plans at all. She isn’t staying who we thought she would be staying with. She has made no effort really to contact the person with whom she had a job lined up with, and she is staying now with a relative I would prefer her not to be around.

She also posted she is gay.

I have a ton of thoughts going through my mind. I find it hard to concentrate at any given time of the day. It’s not the gay part that bothers me, it’s more the fact that I really don’t believe it.

It’s not a denial disbelief, it’s I know my daughter. If you have read any of my posts you will be able to interpret that she truly is the child of an addict. She has her own set of issues to deal with that have nothing to do with using, as we addicts all do after the drugs have been removed.

I believe that she is searching. I believe she is trying to find herself. I am trying to understand the path she is taking and it is for her to discover, but I also know her ability to make consistently good decisions is nonexistent.

If this is truly what she wants, if this is truly what will make her happy than I will support her. I just feel at no time during the time she has been alive has there been one thing that would lead me or her mother to believe that this is her lifestyle choice. It has been a total surprise and shock to our family. I have racked my brain trying to get my mind around this one, but for me it is just another long twist in an ever strange and bumpy road with my daughter.

When she calls I continue to ask if she is ok. I ask if she is looking for work. or if she has been to see old friends and family. We constantly get…’I called so and so’ or ‘I will do it tomorrow’. My fear is that this relative she is staying with is caught up in some shady dealings including prescription fraud and welfare fraud. I am afraid she is going to get caught up in this nonsense and I have voiced my opinion to her only to have her tell me she knows what’s going on and isn’t a part of it.

I was looking through the local directory of meetings online and I see where the Wednesday Night meeting that I went to when I first arrived has been changed to a Text Discussion meeting. What stood out is that it is a 3rd Edition Text Meeting.
I know what has happened here. There is a fellow with substantial clean time in our area who is disenfranchised with the fellowship and has manipulated the group into this extension of his ego.
Some meetings have been cut and due to geography I have decided to switch fellowships and go to AA.

I talked about this at length after my arrival here and finding that meetings were virtually nonexistent and being manipulated by one or two people for their own benefit. I cannot be apart of this and I do not feel I can or should take on a struggle to change something, that in time, will extinguish itself. Our literature reminds me that the self-seekers will ‘Be on the outside looking in’.

First and foremost…my demise has been greatly exaggerated.
My apologies to you……

So much has transpired since my last post, the most important of it all is that I have not used. I have been clean for 6 years, 5 months, and 19 days. To be honest with you I have learned the true meaning of desire, it is a state of mind and body, not of willpower or determination.

I have learned acceptance on an entirely different level. I have learned that obsession and compulsion truly make up the core of our disease. I have learned that intolerance and projection is a reality killer for us all. Most of all…..I have learned to let go, and stay in the here and now.

My daughter has moved out.
She turned 18 on April 15th, graduated High School on May 14th, and moved out on May 30th.

She went back to Ohio. My wife and I had numerous talks at night in the dark. The ‘what if’s’ and ‘if only’s’ ran rampantly. My daughter was given an opportunity of a lifetime here by a business owner and passed it up. She received a few letters from colleges but not the one’s she was looking for. About 3 weeks before graduation she approached me and told me that she loved us but did not want to live here and asked if I would buy here a plane ticket back to Ohio. I told her yes……..

2 Weeks before graduation my daughter fell ill with Strep Throat. It was a bad enough case we ended up in the emergency room where she had a fever of 103. The week before graduation was spent on running back and forth to the school, handing money out, and trying to motivate her to do some basic things. It dawned on me that she had given up on us because things weren’t working out the way she wanted them too. I dealt with boys calling the house all hours of the night, her not coming home, and a weeklong senior trip to Panama City, Florida which involved the police. Long story short, I felt my control as a parent slip away, the little I had left anyway.

I knew that the best for all involved was for her to go and experience life. This became a point of contention between my with and I. My wife felt she wasn’t mature enough to handle it, I agreed, but I knew ultimately what was going to happen. She was going to leave one way or the other…..

Standing at the airport gate I felt lost. I felt small. I felt like the world and my HP were showing me something that it would take some time to understand……

Ultimately I only have power over myself and my perception of reality.

As I hugged her and cried as I am doing now, I wanted to change so many things that I can’t. I told her what I have told many of you in the past in posts and I don’t believe I ever told any of you this but it seems fitting now. It is something my Father said to me in a phone call that changed our relationship. He said, and I said to her……

For whatever I did or didn’t do, know that I Love You.

I told her to be safe and within a blink of the eye she was gone through the gate……

I told my wife last night that I missed her. I don’t miss the fighting, the drama, the pain, but I miss her. She has a lot to learn about being a person, and how to treat other people. She is currently staying with an Uncle and his girlfriend. I miss her voice….When I call sometimes she will answer and sometimes she won’t….that’s what hurts the most.

Today is my son’s 14th birthday and he is awesome. I have said before that he has been a rock through all of this and he has. My goal is to concentrate on him and help him to the best of my ability. It was at this point in my own life, at his age, that my father left, and I was lost. Now I can be here for him.

My wife continues to support me in all that I do and our relationship is strong. I will be returning to recovery meetings next week after a long absence. I could give a million reasons as to why I haven’t been going but the truth of the matter is I put it all on hold, good, bad, or indifferent. It was my decision and I have suffered for it. Not by returning to active addiction but by suffering in silence which someone told me a while ago I could do or I could choose to live. The person that told me that was an intake nurse at the treatment center I walked into on December 19th, 2005.